Sensor Sweep by Don Pendleton

Author:Don Pendleton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Worldwide Library
Published: 2013-09-09T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Stony Man Farm, Virginia

Barbara Price leaned over Aaron Kurtzman’s shoulder and watched as he worked.

The Bear’s keen mind never ceased to fascinate her. His fingers danced over a keyboard, entering specific codes into the software program created by his team. In front of him was a twenty-five-inch LCD monitor that displayed a three-dimensional image of the Earth’s surface. The system was interfaced to the Stony Man group’s satellite for their exclusive use. With a combination of the latest technology available from the NSA—National Weather Service, U.S. Navy and NASA—the system could pinpoint the location of any seafaring vessel utilizing a GPS transmitter. The system could also locate vehicles, planes, military equipment and civilian transportation systems that were GPS-equipped.

At present Price could tell Kurtzman was frustrated by the volume of clacking keystrokes. They had so far had little luck in determining, outside of the point of origin, which freighters had the greatest potential. That didn’t worry Price to any great degree; she knew Kurtzman would eventually nail it. But it was going to take time, and that, unfortunately, wasn’t a luxury they had. The clock was ticking and they still weren’t any closer to finding the correct targets.

The other pressing matter was how to prepare a response if they couldn’t locate the freighters in time. There was no question the threat was chemical in nature and everything she had learned from medical experts at the Surgeon General’s office and FEMA painted an ugly picture.

The effects of the chemical compound, a cholinesterase poison of some complexity, acted on the muscarinic receptors in red blood cells. Victims of cholinesterase poisoning would exhibit signs and symptoms that included profuse sweating, nausea and vomiting, uncontrolled urination and defecation, as well as severe reactions from the central nervous system. The onset was minutes, and mortality was based on the dose and method of exposure. In short, Price was no doctor, but it didn’t sound very good.

The other problem was the ability of medical facilities to effectively treat anyone exposed to the cholinesterase poisoning. All the experts Price had consulted concurred on the preferred treatment, which was the administration of high-dose atropine.

That was all well and good, but there were no stockpiles large enough to handle a major number of exposures. The key, then, was to insure that the Qibla terrorists never succeeded in their plans. The only way to do that was to find the freighters and, if necessary, to dispatch military units to blow them out of the water. The greatest difficulty would be keeping such activities quiet and stemming public scrutiny. Even if the President were forced to give the order for such an operation, it wouldn’t go over well in the view of public opinion to have naval and air force units blatantly sinking commercial freighters. A lot of tough questions would be asked, much tougher than had been posed at the 9/11 hearings.

They had to make sure it never came to that.

Harold Brognola’s weary voice intruded on Price’s thoughts. “Greetings, team.”

She turned to see that Brognola had entered the Computer Room.

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